Salted Caramel Snack Balls

Snack

These high protein snacks for kids {or adults!} pack a whopper of a protein punch, along with great flavor. Perfect for hungry kids or post-workout refueling. Bonus: they’re no bake, gluten free, and dairy free!

Salted caramel high protein snack balls - gluten free, dairy free

I’m a serious, serious snacker. The three {or even four} meals a day thing just does not float my boat. Apparently I’ve passed that trait onto my three year old, who is constantly {constantly} asking for a snack.

I do my best to make sure they’re filling and healthy snacks for kids, in secret hopes it will fill him up enough to stop asking me for a minute. {It doesn’t usually work}. But I do make my best effort to have high protein snacks for kids that meet both of our taste requirements, plus are gluten free and dairy free. {Since clearly I’ll snack on them too.}

healthy snacks for kids

High Protein Snack Balls {Gluten Free, Dairy Free}

[Tweet “Need a healthy protein-packed snack? Try these salted caramel snack balls! #glutenfree”]

Healthy snack balls of all kind are on a weekly rotation around here. I typically make a bunch then store them in the freezer for easy snacking. This week we mixed our standard protein ball recipe up a bit by using flavored almonds, and now I want to go make a batch with every flavor offered.

We got these two flavors from Blue Diamond, the Salted Caramel and Blueberry almonds, and they are so good by themselves it was almost a crime to use them in a recipe. But a crime worth committing because my three year old is busy not asking me “why?” for the millionth time because his mouth is full of dense, protein-packed, nutty deliciousness.

healthy high protein snack recipe

To start, we experimented with some Salted Caramel high protein snack balls since I’m obsessed with salted caramel. They are super dense but have a fun flavor. {The almonds make delicious homemade nut butter on their own, by the way. soo good.}

healthy snack recipes

gluten free dairy free salted caramel snack balls

My taste-tester approves.

kid friendly snack balls

In order to keep him from eating the entire batch in one sitting, I shoved the bag of blueberry almonds in front of him as a distraction. High protein snacks for the double win.

blueberry almonds

Now I need to go buy a new bag so I can make some coconut blueberry balls. Mm.

blueberry flavored almonds

 

High Protein Snacks for Kids & Beyond

High protein snacks gluten free dairy free

Salted Caramel Protein Snack Balls

by with a Side of Sneakers

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup almond butter {homemade or otherwise}
  • 1 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder {gluten free & dairy free if needed}
  • 1/8 cup brown rice syrup
  • 1 T coconut oil
  • 1/2 T cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp each: vanilla extract, butter extract, & fleur de sel
  • 1/4 cup Blue Diamond Salted Caramel Almonds, chopped

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and form into balls.

*Recipe affected heavily by how oily your nut butter is – mix should be crumbly, but stay in ball form when squeezed in your hands. If it doesn’t stick together, add coconut oil or almond milk 1 tsp at a time until balls form.

*Doubly extra good if you use almond butter made with the salted caramel flavored almonds.

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Do you have a favorite high protein snack recipe? I’m inspired to branch out more with these healthy snack ball recipes now that we’ve opened up the door to new flavors.

 

This post was originally sponsored by Blue Diamond.

 

Flavor Your Adventure: Trail Mix

Food thoughts

This “Flavor Your Adventure” post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds.

Summer is one of my favorite times. Not because of the oppressively hot weather or the need for sunscreen at 7am, but because of the freedom and lack of rigidity. Even with a three year old, we’re already feeling the effects the school year imposes on your daily agenda. While I’m all for scheduling and planning, the idea of having absolutely nothing set in stone on the day’s to-do list is absolutely freeing and liberating. Sure there are things that have to be done, deadlines to make, and appointments to keep, but the general flow of the day and week is generally totally up in the air and it’s awesome.

almond trail mix

I love being ready to drop everything and go do anything at any given moment, whether it’s something big and exciting like a road trip or something tiny {but equally as exciting} as a pool day or trip to the library with friends. The only way to make this work and not go totally crazy is to be prepared. For us, this means knowing where sunscreen and bathing suits are at all times, managing to not lose my keys or wallet, and always having easy, portable snacks on hand that will satisfy both myself and an opinionated threenager.

While we always have at least a small collection of pre-packaged snacks on hand {fruit cups, granola bars}, our go-to this summer has been trail mix. This is an easy one because it’s a basic simple formula that meets our needs {healthy, filling, allergy-friendly} but is also easy to change up every single time to prevent snack boredom.

  
The kiddo’s fave is Blue Diamond’s Roasted Lightly Salted Almonds, dried cranberries, raisins, and chocolate chips. Tossing in something slightly “exotic” like dried papaya, mango, granola clusters, or pumpkin seeds is basically the highlight of his snack-based day.

My favorite is coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, and dried apricots, with switching up the variety by changing the flavor almonds I use. My current faves are honey mustard and wasabi.

When I’m feeling super on top of things {ha} we’ll make the mixtures into granola bars, clusters, or balls, but most of them we eat the trail mix straight up on whatever adventure we happen to be on.

blue diamond almonds

 

This “Flavor Your Adventure” post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. For more snack ideas to “Flavor Your Adventure” this summer, visit Blue Diamond Almonds on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.